There’s no crying in kickball. But sometimes there’s shouting, arguing, and the reassignment of an umpire that sparks allegations of abuse of power and a potential lawsuit against a city’s mayor.
We’re referring to one wild game of kickball that took place in Moncks Corner, South Carolina earlier this month.
The town’s mayor Michael Lockliear was there because he and his adult son play on one of the teams. All hell broke loose when Umpire Graylnn Moran Jr. called the younger Lockliear out, he says.
“I called the mayor’s son out at the plate because he got hit on the back of the leg,” Moran told The Post and Courier. “Man, the mayor went crazy on me. He storms out there to the plate, calls me stupid and was just yelling. It was embarrassing. ... He was so aggressive, I thought he wanted to fight me.”
What happened next shocked the ump even more.
“After the incident, town Recreation Director Becky Ellison called the organization responsible for scheduling the umpires and asked that Moran be assigned elsewhere and ‘not our kickball games,’” The Post and Courier reports.
Now, Moran is mulling a lawsuit.
Mayor Lockliear says the reassignment was not his decision and that the incident is being blown out of proportion.
Read the rest of the story here and decide for yourself.